How to Send a YouTube Link With a Timestamp
Sharing a YouTube video is easy. Sharing it so the recipient lands on exactly the right moment? That takes one extra step — but it's a step most people skip entirely, leaving their recipient to scrub through a 45-minute video looking for the 30-second clip you actually meant.
Here's how timestamped YouTube links work, across every major platform and device.
What a Timestamped YouTube Link Actually Does
A timestamp appended to a YouTube URL tells YouTube's player to begin playback at a specific point rather than the beginning. The viewer clicks your link, the video loads, and it starts at the moment you specified — no scrubbing required.
The timestamp is added as a URL parameter. It looks like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID&t=90s The &t=90s portion tells the player to start at the 90-second mark. You can also express it in hours, minutes, and seconds: &t=1h30m45s. YouTube accepts both formats reliably.
How to Copy a Timestamped Link on Desktop (Browser)
This is the most straightforward method and works in any browser — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge.
Method 1: Right-click on the video
- Pause the video at the exact moment you want to share
- Right-click anywhere on the video player
- Select "Copy video URL at current time"
- Paste the link wherever you're sharing it
That's it. YouTube automatically appends the timestamp to the URL.
Method 2: Use the Share button
- Pause the video at your chosen moment
- Click the Share button below the video (the arrow icon)
- In the share dialog, check the box labeled "Start at [timestamp]"
- The timestamp field will pre-fill with the current playback position — edit it manually if needed
- Click Copy and share the link
The share dialog method gives you a slightly shortened URL (using youtu.be), which looks cleaner when pasted into messages or social posts.
How to Share a Timestamped Link on Mobile 📱
The YouTube mobile app handles this slightly differently on iOS and Android.
On both platforms:
- Tap the video to bring up the playback controls
- Pause at the moment you want to share
- Tap the Share button (the arrow icon, typically beneath the video)
- Look for the "Start at [time]" toggle or checkbox — enable it
- Choose your sharing destination (Messages, WhatsApp, email, etc.) or tap Copy Link
One important variable: the "Start at" option doesn't always appear in every version of the app or on every device. If you don't see it, there's a workaround — copy the regular link, then manually add &t=XXs to the end before sending. For youtu.be short links, the format is slightly different: https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID?t=90.
Note the difference in separator character:
youtube.comURLs use&t=youtu.beshort URLs use?t=
Getting this wrong won't break the link — YouTube is forgiving — but using the correct separator is technically accurate.
Manual Timestamp Editing: The Format Breakdown
If you're adding a timestamp by hand, here's how the time values work:
| Format | Example | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Seconds only | &t=145s | Starts at 2 minutes, 25 seconds |
| Minutes and seconds | &t=2m25s | Starts at 2 minutes, 25 seconds |
| Hours, minutes, seconds | &t=1h2m25s | Starts at 1 hour, 2 minutes, 25 seconds |
| Seconds without suffix | &t=145 | Also works; YouTube infers seconds |
All of these are valid. The s, m, and h suffixes make the URL more readable but aren't strictly required for seconds-only values.
Platform-Specific Behavior to Know
Where you paste the link affects how it appears and behaves:
Social media (Twitter/X, Facebook, LinkedIn): These platforms often generate a video preview card. The timestamp is preserved in the link, so clicking the card should start at the right moment — though this depends on how each platform renders embeds, and behavior can vary.
Messaging apps (WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram): The link previews as a card but clicking it opens YouTube (or the YouTube app). The timestamp is honored once the app loads.
Email: Plain URL links work exactly as expected. Formatted hyperlinks work too — the timestamp lives in the URL, not the display text.
Embedded iframes: If you're embedding a video on a website, the timestamp parameter works in the iframe src attribute just as it does in a browser URL.
When the Timestamp Doesn't Work 🔧
A few situations can cause the timestamp to be ignored or stripped:
- Incorrect URL format — mixing up
?and&separators, or adding the parameter before the video ID - Link shorteners — some third-party URL shorteners strip query parameters entirely
- Copy-paste errors — the timestamp gets cut off if you don't copy the full URL
- App behavior — some older versions of mobile apps or certain third-party YouTube clients don't honor timestamp parameters
If a recipient tells you the link isn't starting at the right moment, the first check is whether the full URL — including the &t= or ?t= portion — arrived intact.
The Variable That Changes Everything
The method that works best depends on factors specific to your situation: which device you're using, which version of the YouTube app is installed, whether you need a clean short link or a full URL, and where you're sharing it. A desktop user sharing to Slack has a different workflow than someone sending a clip via WhatsApp from an Android phone. Each path gets to the same result — a link that starts at the right second — but the steps look different depending on where you're starting from.